Takeaways: Joe Thornton gets mixed grades in return to Sharks lineup

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San Jose Sharks’ Joe Thornton (19) controls the puck against Anaheim Ducks’ Marcus Pettersson (28) in the third period at the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

SAN JOSE — The action on the ice looked like a repeat of last spring’s Stanley Cup playoff series. The end result was quite different.

The Sharks picked up where they left off in their opening round sweep of the Anaheim Ducks Wednesday, dominating their Southern California rivals for the majority of Erik Karlsson’s debut in teal and Joe Thornton’s return to lineup. But the Ducks managed to squeak five goals past the Sharks on just 15 shots, spoiling one of the most highly-anticipated nights at SAP Center in recent memory.

Here’s what we learned in the Sharks 5-2 opening night loss.

1. Thornton gets mixed grades in his return action.

The grades for Thornton’s first NHL game since Jan. 23 might depend on whether you’re a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty person. If you’re the former, he probably gets a solid B. But the more pessimistic segment of the fan base pulled out the red marker Wednesday night and drew a big C-minus on his paper.

Let’s start with the good news: Thornton is ahead of schedule compared to where he was at on opening night last year. Over the first seven weeks of the 2017-18 season, Thornton struggled to regain his form, attempting a comeback less than five months after undergoing surgery to repair the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee. He eventually got things on track after Thanksgiving, recording 26 points in his last 28 games.

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This time around, he’s received an additional three months to recover from a similar injury in his right knee, and according to head coach Pete DeBoer, the difference is evident. While Thornton failed to leave a noticeable imprint on the game, he skated for 17:42, posting a 75 percent possession rating. He certainly wasn’t keeping his line tied down in the defensive zone.

“It’s the best I’ve seen him moving since training camp,” DeBoer said. “That bodes well. Last year, it really took him until Christmas to find a real-good rhythm, so I think it will be sooner than that.”

Thornton clearly isn’t in a “real-good rhythm” just yet as DeBoer didn’t hesitate to split he and Joe Pavelski up in the third period, a card he’s only played once (Nov. 12, 2017) in his three-year tenure with the Sharks. Instead of sticking with the most-dynamic duo in Sharks history, DeBoer opted to skate Pavekski with Evander Kane and Joonas Donskoi, the trio that propelled the Sharks into the playoffs last season in Thornton’s absence. He kept Thornton and Timo Meier together, skating them with fourth liner Marcus Sorensen, which could be interpreted as a demotion for No. 19.

Here’s how DeBoer explained his decision to throw the lines in the blender after 40 minutes despite the Sharks 26-9 shot edge.

“I wanted to try and free up some guys,” the Sharks coach said. “There were some guys that looked good and some guys I didn’t think were getting a lot of looks. We kept together the guys I thought were going.”

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One way to interpret this statement is that DeBoer wanted to free up Pavelski by playing him with Kane and Donskoi, who were clearly going, a sign that he’s willing to bump Thornton down in the lineup if need be.

Another indication that Thornton had a C-minus type of night: he declined to speak with reporters after the game. Maybe he wasn’t in the mood to put on a fake smile and churn out clichés about how good it felt to be back on the ice with his teammates.

He’s 39 and coming off major surgeries in both knees. He knows he has work to do. He knows it won’t be easy.

2. Kane is able.

After getting labeled as a selfish teammate in Winnipeg and Buffalo, Kane insisted Wednesday morning that he doesn’t care about skating down on the third line if it helps the Sharks win.

The 27-year-old said he can play a big role and put the puck in the net wherever he’s slotted into the lineup and he backed up his words Wednesday.

Kane scored the Sharks first goal at 7:51 of the first, skating around Hampus Lindholm, slipping the puck through Josh Manson’s legs and beating Josh Gibson through his five hole.

He made his presence felt all over the ice, leading the Sharks in shots (5), attempts (8) and looking very much like the player who record 14 points in 17 games after joining the team at the trade deadline last winter.

“I thought we played very well, to be honest,” Kane said, referring to the third line combination of he, Donskoi and Antti Suomela. “We did a lot of good things in the first two periods and worked well together, and probably could have had a couple more goals if the bounces went our way.”

Tomas Hertl also looked like the guy who had a coming out party in the playoffs last spring, scoring a goal and recording seven attempts.

3. DeBoer is noncommittal about Martin Jones for Friday’s game in Los Angeles.

On Tuesday, DeBoer scoffed at a question about whether Martin Jones is ready for the regular season after recording an .860 save percentage in three preseason games. In the aftermath of Wednesday’s loss, he answered a similar question in a slightly different tune.

Jones coughed up four goals on 13 shots Wednesday, including an absolute backbreaker at 8:02 of the third when Brandon Montour flipped a seemingly-harmless backhander into the top shelf to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead.

The Sharks goalie insists he isn’t rusty, an assessment that DeBoer declined to support when posed the question.

It’s hard to imagine that Jones won’t play against his former-team on Friday. Jones boasts a .931 save percentage and a 2.06 goals-against average in 14 career appearances against the Los Angeles Kings. In the long run, he’s going to be fine. You don’t hit the panic button after three exhibitions and a regular season game. But if Jones does struggles to shake off whatever rust he may have accumulated over the summer in the early stages of the season, the Sharks have a more-than-competent back up in Aaron Dell